Tuck Everlasting-Babbitt, Natalie-Classics, Death & Dying, Fantasy & Magic, Juvenile Fiction, Social Issues

Doomed to—or blessed with—eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can.  When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is less a blessing than it might seem.  Complications arise when Winnie is followed by a stranger who wants to market the spring water for a fortune . . .

Amazon.com Review

Imagine coming upon a fountain of youth in a forest.  To live forever—isn't that everyone's ideal?  For the Tuck family, eternal life is a reality, but their reaction to their fate is surprising.  Award winner Natalie Babbitt (Knee-Knock Rise, The Search for Delicious) outdoes herself in this sensitive, moving adventure in which 10-year-old Winnie Foster is kidnapped, finds herself helping a murderer out of jail, and is eventually offered the ultimate gift—but doesn't know whether to accept it.  Babbitt asks profound questions about the meaning of life and death, and leaves the reader with a greater appreciation for the perfect cycle of nature.  Intense and powerful, exciting and poignant, Tuck Everlasting will last forever—in the reader's imagination.  An ALA Notable Book.  (Ages 9 to 12)  — Emilie Coulter

Review

"Rarely does one find a book with such prose. Flawless in both style and structure, it is rich in imagery and punctuated with light fillips of humor.  The author manipulates her plot deftly, dealing with six main characters brought together because of a spring whose waters can bestow everlasting life. . .Underlying the drama is the dilemma of the age-old desire for perpetual youth."  —The Horn Book